![]() ![]() Paden never liked her daughter's boyfriend.īaggett was 45, just a couple of years younger than Paden and far older than the 28-year-old mother of three. ![]() Jessica wasn't reported missing until after 10 p.m. According to Paden, Baggett's daughter contacted her moments later and told her not to worry about Stacks. ![]() The man said he did not know where Stacks was and hung up. When she had not heard from her by that evening, she knew something was wrong, and she called Stacks' phone again. When she tried to call Stacks at around 10 a.m. Paden said she had not seen her daughter in several days before she went missing. "Now you tell me she's going to let a stranger use her phone. Likewise, the mother feels her daughter would have never left her cell phone with Baggett's friend, Willie Stinson. Paden said if her daughter had gotten out of the boat, as Baggett had told investigators, she would have taken her purse with her. The mother also questions where Stacks' purse and phone were found. She only weighed 105 pounds soaking wet," Paden said. "She loved to go fishing, but she's not stupid. Stacks' mother, however, doesn't believe her daughter - who loved the outdoors - would have gotten into the boat to go hog hunting, no matter her state-of-mind. "The hunting part (of the story) is not too far fetched." "What may make sense to you and me, doesn't always make sense to someone on drugs," Edwards said. Edwards said the couple was battling a drug addiction, which may have impaired their thinking. The aluminum Jon boat had no motor, and Baggett and Stacks reportedly were using shovels to paddle the boat down the river.īut officials say that could have seemed like a perfectly acceptable outing to them at the time. The bigger question is how the couple planned to control the boat in the raging, rain-swollen river. Not everyone does it but hogs have gotten popular in that area."Īlthough there isn't a boat landing at County Road 46, just a little dirt road going down to the river, people have been known to park there and put in boats to fish, the sheriff said. "Folks will try to catch a deer or a hog when the banks (of the channel) are the only thing not under water. ![]() "Animals can get stranded by the high water," Edwards said. There has been little new information on the case since.įor many, the idea of putting a boat into a flooded river to search for wild hogs raises questions. Officials worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to put up a berm across the channel to temporarily hold back most of the water, then brought in an excavator to dig up areas along the river. Around August 2021, the searches resumed, this time with cadaver dogs. The river, which drains into Sardis Lake, usually recedes in the late summer. Later searches included divers and dogs, but nothing else was found. Along with the footprints, searchers found the top of a woman's boot that had been cut off, a coat, a glove and a shovel with a broken handle. The footprints went about 100 yards, heading toward County Road 46, before turning north toward Highway 30. Law enforcement officials say the searches uncovered footprints and other items believed to belong to Stacks in a heavily wooded section just inside the Holly Springs National Forest. People walked the river, and we had drones flying." "It was Sunday before it receded enough to get to the side of the river on foot. "That entire area was under water," said Union County Sheriff Jimmy Edwards. The search resumed at daylight that Saturday morning. The Union County Sheriff's Office began searching for Stacks that night but had to call it off at 2 a.m. Stacks was not reported missing until 10:15 that night, more than 12 hours later, and not by Baggett. Baggett told police he got out of the boat and called someone to come pick him up. The boat was later found beached on the opposite bank about a half-mile farther downstream. She got out on the right bank and said she was walking back to County Road 46. The water was flowing faster than usual, and Stacks asked to get out about 2 miles downstream. He kept his phone, but they gave Stacks' phone to a friend so they could call and tell him where to pick them up. The plan, according to Baggett, was to float down the channel from County Road 46 about 3.5 miles and then get out at the Rocky Ford bridge where Highway 30 crosses over the river. The couple reportedly wanted to take advantage of unseasonably warm weather to search the bottom for wild hogs or deer stranded on high ground in the flooded river bottom. ![]()
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